Miss Banana's Heart Day

June 26th is holiday.  Maybe not for the rest of you, but to us, June 26th is the day we celebrate the anniversary of Miss B's open heart surgery.  The day we celebrate that she is alive and well.  She is now a one-year-open-heart-surgery survivor.  AMAZING.  I am so grateful for modern medicine and for Dr. HeartSurgeon for making it possible for our little lady to be around to light up our lives like she does.  She is our little miracle baby. 

As I've been reflecting on this day last year, I remember feeling like June 26th was the day that the calendar stopped.  I couldn't really imagine what life would be like after that day--some parents of kids with congenital heart defects spent a few days in the hospital after surgery.  Some spent  months.  Some had children that didn't make it out of surgery.  Or that had serious complications during recovery that took their child.  I remember wondering which group we'd be in and that no matter which group it was--our lives would never be the same. 

We literally had to place our child's life into someone else's hands and then trust the surgeon and Heavenly Father that the best would happen.  We had to sign papers that said we knew that our child could die from the procedure.  We had to watch them wheel her away on the hospital bed, oblivious to what would happen next.  We had to wait and wait and wait as the surgery took place--the nurses came in and updated us occasionally...but there were long stretches where we did just about anything we could think of to keep our minds occupied so we didn't go crazy with worry.  We had to wait after they moved her into the PICU for them to get her body calmed down.  We had to walk in and see her intubated, covered in wires and drainage tubes filled with blood.

But then we got to see her recover.  The first few days seemed to drag on forever, but by day four post-op, she was ready to head home with only Tylenol as a pain reliever.  Once home, she really started to shine.  With a her heart pumping correctly, she was finally able to eat and gain weight.  She gained strenghth and started rolling, laughing, eating, crawling, and now, even pulling to stand.  Each of those accomplishments is a miracle.  An absolute miracle.

What a blessing that her surgery went so well.  Each day, I thank my Heavenly Father for her little life.  I am so grateful for her and for a loving God that knew how much I needed her and allowed her to stay on Earth with us.

We celebrated today with a Heart Day party.  Some friends, some heart-healthy food (well, except for the heart-cake!) played some heart games.  (No pictures of the party because it was a little wild, but Miss B wore her cute heart dress, we decorated in red and any other heart decoration I could find.  T-Man and Fearless had a lot of fun with it!)  We took a few pictures afterwards, just so we could see how much she's changed since this day last year. 

Amazing. 

Really, amazing.

Happy Heart Day, Miss B.